The Summer Place

On the first day of summer camp, you checked into your room and found cabin decor like bunk beds, wood floors, and log walls carved with campers' initials. Some of your best childhood memories may have been created there. Camp and cottage styles remind us of summer's halcyon days -- but without the bug spray and flashlights.

If your idea of paradise is a getaway in the woods, your style might include Pendleton blankets and bearskin rugs. If your vacation idyll is near the water, your cottage might take a nautical turn, with white­washed plank paneling and a hammock on the porch. Camp and cottage styles make room for the vintage rocker and faded florals cast off from Grandma's city house as well as Grandpa's creels, fishing poles, and canoe paddles.

This snowshoe lamp recalls the crisp days of winter, when being snowed in equals the ideal romantic getaway.
©Whispering Pines
A log cabin isn't just for summer. This snowshoe lamp recalls the crisp days
of winter, when being snowed in equals the ideal romantic getaway.

The furnishings and accessories in a summer place should be just one step removed from the outdoors. In fact, many of them may be used both inside and out -- the table that's carried to the porch for supper and the quilt that's spread out on the lawn to watch Fourth of July fireworks are the stuff of cottage and summer camp styles.

For more decorating ideas, see: